


in which i do what i do best: scene rewrites to make it gay

by SymphonySoldierXIII



Category: Pacific Rim (2013)
Genre: 'chuck is dead' my ass, M/M, What A World We Live In, also did you know you can tag baby kaiju as a character, and dating. they're dating, chaleigh is drift compatible
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-20
Updated: 2017-01-20
Packaged: 2018-09-18 18:58:34
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,183
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9398603
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SymphonySoldierXIII/pseuds/SymphonySoldierXIII
Summary: if you squint while watching the pitfall you can pretend this is what really happened





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [softjohn](https://archiveofourown.org/users/softjohn/gifts).



> i listened to the pacific rim main theme and afraid by the neighbourhood at the same time while listening to this. literally i had one playing on youtube and one on spotify it was a fucking mess but it worked right
> 
> also this is short as FUCK but it's 4:20 (blaze it) am can you blame me. i just wanted 2 write a Cute Thing about my boys from a movie i just watched for the first time about 24 hours ago

"Hang on, Striker! We're coming to ya!"

Every single atom in Raleigh's body was in pain. Gipsy had lost an arm and about half a leg, so they were moving pretty slow, but they were still moving. They had to keep going.

"No! Gipsy, do not come to our aid! Do you copy?" Pentecost commanded.

"Hang on! We're almost there!"

"No, stay as far back as you can!"

"We can still reach you! We're coming for you!" Raleigh insisted. He wasn't about to give up on Mako or Stacker.

"No, Raleigh, you know exactly what you have to do! Gipsy is nuclear, take her to the breach."

"I hear you, sir. Heading for the breach."

Taking off his helmet, Stacker began to initiate the escape pod release - for the left side. "Mako, listen. This is going to end, right now, and I want you to be alive for it."

"No, you can't-"

"It's already done, Mako. I'm sorry I didn't give you the chance to finish it yourself."

"Sensei!" Mako cried out as she was lifted into the pod.

"I'll always be here for you. You can always find me in the Drift."

The pod launched. Mako would be far away from the blast, probably at the surface by the time it was over.

"Aishitemasu," Mako whispered, her mind falling into the Drift as her pod floated up to the surface.

"Gipsy... No - Raleigh, Chuck, finish this."

"What are you gonna do, sir?" Chuck said.

"I can clear a path. Make sure you two get to the breach."

"Well, my father always said, 'If you have the shot, you take it,'" Chuck offered.

"And we're gonna take it," Raleigh added, making sense of Chuck's otherwise irrelevant line given the situation. Perhaps if the Australian had been in the opposite jaeger, the quote would have been useful.

"Let's do this!" He grinned. Maybe not the happiest of smiles, considering there was a fairly high chance they'd all die, but more a bittersweet one. "It was a pleasure, sir."

Striker's hull began to glow, the light emanating from it matching the color of kaiju blue - perhaps a finale of bittersweet irony.

The kaiju drew closer, closer, closer, until the ocean floor shook and the blast consumed everything around it.

Gipsy knelt down, sword stuck into the seafloor to stand her ground through the blast.

When it was over, and the AI voice came back online, Raleigh spoke.

"Systems are critical, fuel's leaking, our right leg's crippled. Let's finish this."

Chuck nodded, and once again gave Raleigh that bittersweet smile.

"Loccent, we have the kaiju carcass. We're heading for the breach."

And cue the main theme, just as Gipsy started towards the rift, dragging a dead kaiju and half of her right leg.

"You guys better be right, 'cause one way or another, we're getting this thing done."

Only a few more steps...

And a kaiju drops down right the fuck in front of them. But do they give a flying fuck? No. Speaking of flying, that's their plan. Fly - or, rather, float, considering they're underwater - right over the kaiju's head, and drag that shit down into the breach with them.

"On my count, rear jets!" Raleigh shouts. "Three, two, one, now!"

And into the breach they go, sword stuck through one of the kaiju's spikes.

"Hold on!"

"Let's burn this motherfucker!" Chuck shouts, flipping on the jets again and roasting the kaiju better than the roast in [my kingdom hearts fic](http://archiveofourown.org/works/9347672).

_Oxygen main, left hemisphere. Critical levels. Operating at 15% capacity._

Without so much as a second thought (without even a first thought, really), Raleigh detaches his oxygen cord and switches it with Chuck's. There's no doubt in his mind as to which one of them should make it up to the surface, should there be any further fucking complications in this shitstorm of a day.

_Right hemisphere oxygen. Critical levels._

"It's okay now, Chuck, we did it," Raleigh shoots him a mirror image of that bittersweet smile. "I can finish this alone. All I have to do is fall. Anyone can fall."

He reached out and brushed their hands together, both of them too dazed to do anything more.

"Raleigh, your oxygen levels are critical, start the core meltdown and get out of there," Choi said over the comm as Raleigh began to engage the escape pod for the left side.

"I love you, Raleigh," Chuck said, either out of shock, panic, worry, fear, disorientation, the list goes on. Oh, and he finally got Raleigh's name right, which is also a surprise.

"I know," Raleigh smirked, however halfheartedly, as Chuck was lifted into the escape pod.

"Loccent, if you can still hear me, I'm initiating reactor override now."

And, of course, because the only thing that could go right that day was Chuck finally saying Raleigh's name right, the reactor needed manual override. And that, of course, took long enough that Raleigh passed through the breach.

 _Maybe I'm not going to make it back,_ he thought. _Maybe this is how I die, floating in a nuclear jaeger in an alien world._

But fate pulled its strings once more, and as the detonator countdown began, Raleigh floated back towards the breach.

And then he was falling. Falling, falling, back to maybe surviving.

_All I have to do is fall._

 

* * *

 

One pod broke the surface.

Chuck's opened up, and he almost didn't want to breathe. He didn't want to let go of the oxygen Raleigh sacrificed for him, especially with the chance that Raleigh was... No, he didn't want to think like that. He couldn't.

The other pod came up, and when it didn't immediately open as it had with his, Chuck said, "Oh, fuck," dove into the water and swam over to open the pod.

"Raleigh. Raleigh, wake up," he said, shaking him lightly. He ran his fingers across his neck, looking for a pulse. "Raleigh?"

You would never fucking hear him admit to this, but when Raleigh didn't respond, he started crying.

"Raleigh, wake up. Wake up, dammit, you can't fucking be dead," he said, tears sliding down his face. "Raleigh, come back to me."

Still nothing, as Chuck lifted Raleigh out enough to wrap his arms around him one last time.

"You're squeezing me too hard, asshole."

"Raleigh?"

"Who else would it be?"

"You're alive," Chuck smiled, releasing him from his iron grip hug and kissing him, gently this time as to avoid further injury either of them. "I hate you so fucking much."

"I-" Raleigh shook as he coughed, and even though Chuck was shaking too, he'd never felt more stable than he did at that moment. "I love you too."

From a little ways away, Mako watched from her own open pod, with tear-stained cheeks and red eyes to contrast the smile she had to force.

Helicopters whirred in the distance, coming to get the survivors, as Gipsy's final pilots leaned their foreheads against each other and laced their fingers together as well as they could.

Everything was calm. For the first time in years, the Pacific Ocean was at peace.

**Author's Note:**

> i love love love mako and her and raleigh (excuse me, rAAAhleigh) being friends and co pilots and i love how the movie ended but also i'm gay and just wanted to write this so i can pretend chuck didnt die
> 
> also i have a prequel idea if yall want me to write that


End file.
